Sports

2016 WWE Draft results and analysis

by Vaughn Johnson, Posted: July 20, 2016

After months of anticipation, the WWE Draft finally occurred Tuesday night on Smackdown Live and the WWE Network.

The first 30 picks were made during Smackdown with the final 30 being announced on the WWE Network. At least that is what WWE told everyone. Before Smackdown went off the air, WWE said that 30 more picks were going to be made on the WWE Network, but only 29 were announced.

What happened with the 60th pick? As of this writing, no one knows. Regardless, there were only 59 made and here is a round-by-round look at how the draft shook out.

Round 1

No. 1: Raw – Seth Rollins

No. 2: Smackdown – Dean Ambrose

No. 3: Raw – Charlotte

No. 4: Smackdown – AJ Styles

No. 5: Raw – Finn Balor

Round 2

No. 6: Raw – Roman Reigns

No. 7: Smackdown – John Cena

No. 8: Raw – Brock Lesnar

No. 9: Smackdown – Randy Orton

No. 10: Raw – The New Day

Round 3

No. 11: Raw – Sami Zayn

No. 12: Smackdown – Bray Wyatt

No. 13: Raw – Sasha Banks

No. 14: Smackdown – Becky Lynch

No. 15: Raw – Chris Jericho

Round 4

No. 16: Raw – Rusev (Lana)

No. 17: Smackdown – The Miz (Maryse)

No. 18: Raw – Kevin Owens

No. 19: Smackdown – Baron Corbin

No. 20: Raw – Enzo Amore & Big Cass

Round 5

No. 21: Raw – Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

No. 22: Smackdown – American Alpha

No. 23: Raw – Big Show

No. 24: Smackdown – Dolph Ziggler

No. 25: Raw – Nia Jax

Round 6

No. 26: Raw – Neville

No. 27: Smackdown – Natalya

No. 28: Raw – Cesaro

No. 29: Smackdown – Alberto Del Rio

No. 30: Raw – Sheamus

Round 7

No. 31: Raw – The Golden Truth

No. 32: Smackdown – The Usos

No. 33: Raw – Titus O'Neil

No. 34: Smackdown – Kane

No. 35: Raw – Paige

Round 8

No. 36: Raw – Darren Young (Bob Backlund)

No. 37: Smackdown – Kalisto

No. 38: Raw – Sin Cara

No. 39: Smackdown – Naomi

No. 40: Raw – Jack Swagger

No. 41: Smackdown – The Ascension

Round 9

No. 42: Raw – The Dudley Boyz

No. 43: Smackdown – Zack Ryder

No. 44: Raw – Summer Rae

No. 45: Smackdown – Apollo Crews

No. 46: Raw – Mark Henry

No. 47: Smackdown – Alexa Bliss

Round 10

No. 48: Raw – Braun Strowman

No. 49: Smackdown – Breezango

No. 50: Raw – Bo Dallas

No. 51: Smackdown – Eva Marie

No. 52: Raw – The Shining Stars

No. 53: Smackdown – The Vaudevillains

Round 11

No. 54: Raw – Alicia Fox

No. 55: Smackdown – Erick Rowan

No. 56: Raw – Dana Brooke

No. 57: Smackdown – Mojo Rawley

No. 58: Raw – Curtis Axel

No. 59: Smackdown – Carmella

After those 59 selections, here is how Raw and Smackdown will look for the foreseeable future:

Raw

Male superstars:

Seth Rollins

Finn Balor

Roman Reigns

Brock Lesnar

Sami Zayn

Chris Jericho

Rusev

Kevin Owens

Big Show

Neville

Cesaro

Sheamus

Titus O'Neil

Darren Young

Sin Cara

Jack Swagger

Mark Henry

Braun Strowman

Bo Dallas

Curtis Axel

Female superstars:

Charlotte

Sasha Banks

Nia Jax

Paige

Summer Rae

Alicia Fox

Dana Brooke

Tag teams:

The New Day

Enzo Amore & Big Cass

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

The Golden Truth

The Dudley Boyz

The Shining Stars

Smackdown

Male superstars:

Dean Ambrose

AJ Styles

John Cena

Randy Orton

Bray Wyatt

The Miz

Baron Corbin

Dolph Ziggler

Alberto Del Rio

Kane

Kalisto

Zack Ryder

Apollo Crews

Erick Rowan

Mojo Rawley

Female superstars:

Becky Lynch

Natalya

Naomi

Alexa Bliss

Eva Marie

Carmella

Tag teams:

American Alpha

The Usos

The Ascension

Breezango

The Vaudevillains

Which brand has the better roster?

I'm giving the edge to Raw. I think both of the male rosters are fairly even, but I'll definitely take Raw's tag team and women's divisions over Smackdown's. On top of that, Raw will eventually get the cruiserweight division.

Overall analysis

Here is what WWE got right with the draft. Firstly, it made sense that Rollins and Ambrose were the top two selections. They are both worthy of the spots and were vying for the WWE championship later on that night.

I was also glad to see that Charlotte was taken No. 3 overall by Raw, as it put a big emphasis on the importance of the women's division.

Another thing WWE got right was keeping a majority of the tag teams together. One of the fans' biggest fears heading into the draft was WWE splitting up teams like The New Day and Amore and Big Cass. Well, both teams landed on Raw.

However, that did not mean groups weren't split up. Most notably was The Wyatt Family as Smackdown picked Wyatt and Rowan whereas Strowman landed on Raw.

Also splitting up was The Club as we know it. Styles was taken No. 4 overall by Smackdown where he will be joined by John Cena, who was taken No. 7 overall. Anderson and Gallows will not join Styles on Smackdown, as they were taken by Raw with the 21st overall pick.

Joining Anderson and Gallows will be former NXT champion Balor, who Raw chose with the No. 5 pick. This means the former Bullet Club mates will finally reunite. I liked Balor being taken this high as well, as it lends him instant credibility.

Balor being taken ahead of the likes of Cean, Reigns and Lesnar will instantly make people want to know who Balor is and why he was worthy of being selected so high.

On the list of things WWE got wrong was that it only made 59 picks when it told everyone that 60 picks were going to be made. I understand that the final pick could be saved for Battleground, but it still makes the company look kind of silly that it didn't make all of its picks. That'd be like the NFL announcing 255 selections for the draft, but only making 254 of them.

It looks even sillier when you consider who did not get drafted, and at the top of that list is former NXT Women's champion Bayley. I understand that this can be rectified at Battleground or at an even later date, but that didn't stop fans from being any more outraged, especially when seeing the likes of Eva Marie get selected.

However, I was happy to see other NXT names such as American Alpha, Bliss, Jax, Rawley and Carmella get the call to the main roster. Rawley is the only person that appeared on the first NXT live special back in 2014 that still hadn't gotten the main-roster call, so it was a long time coming for him. The same can be said for Jason Jordan, who had been in NXT probably as long as Rawley. Ever since he began teaming with Chad Gable, he has been on the fast track to the main roster.

As for the women, they all have tremendous talent and will make quality additions to WWE's women's division, which was in need of some new blood.

But still, Bayley needs to be making her way up to the main roster sooner rather than later. Also left undrafted from NXT were Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka and The Revival. I'm not totally surprised that they were left off due to Joe, Asuka and The Revival all holding NXT championships, but it would have been cool to see Nakamura make his way up despite the fact that he's only been in NXT for a couple of months.

Another miss by WWE was not having Kalisto on Raw, which will exclusively present the cruiserweight division. There are some names on the Raw roster that would classify as cruiserweights, but I figured Kalisto would have been at the top of that list.

I also realize that WWE could easily fill up that division with participants from the Cruiserweight Classic, but will they begin showing up on Raw during the tournament?

I also found it weird that Owens and Cesaro had to wait around so long before they were taken. I understand it helped give Owens something to be angry about, but it seemed kind of strange for Cesaro to have to wait until the 28th pick until he finally heard his name called.

Speaking of Owens, I was surprised that he and Zayn will remain on the same brand. I thought WWE would have used the draft as an opportunity to get them away from each other for a little while, but apparently, Battleground will not be the last time they fight each other. They apparently will indeed fight forever.

I was intrigued by how WWE handled controversial names such as Reigns and Lesnar. Reigns' suspension ends this week, but Lesnar's trouble with UFC is seemingly just beginning. That apparently had no effect on where WWE wanted him to be selected.

Like with most drafts, a lot of time will be needed to know for sure whether the decisions WWE made on draft night were the right ones, but it will be at the very least interesting to watch.